My hypothesis is that the reason people feel "more" stuck this time around has something to do with catch-up gear being "less" available that previous tiers, because previous tiers provided two very easy paths to catch up (new 5-man and downgraded Valor items). Do FREAKING note that "more" and "less" are left openly vague and non-judgmental, because I could not FREAKING care wether or not it's good or bad for the game at this point.

On a personal note, I'm perfectly happy with how things turned out, but I'm trying to understand the other guy's position, something this thread could use a little more of, me thinks.

Tl;Dr: Maybe people thought they would have an easy time getting some extra gear to tackle T15 early, like they did with T9,T10,T12 and T13, and actually got a slower catch-up instead.

CLEAR?

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

The reason I'm stuck at a lower ilv has more to do with me deciding to not bother about raiding after Lethal fell apart, I'm reasonably sure I could get in almost any raiding guild on my server if I wanted (there are former lethal raiders in most of them anyway), and I even had (have) an offer of a spot if I transferred servers - I'm just too attached to my guild to want to move on.

I'm not sure an easier catch-up would help for lagging raiders as such, what I'm arguing is that the massive majority (numerically) of raiders (or now previous raiders) have had a very pavlovian experience where blizzard taught them what to expect from raiding. Then along comes T14 with super tight enrages and gear checks - gear checks for skilled player, imagine if you have a 50/50 divide around moderatly skilled and moderatly unskilled in your group. Elegon and Garalon are good examples of this. This is demotivating for the players that were taught they were raiders and could expect to see at least 1 heroic mode boss (the first, but still heroic) while content was current.Then along comes T15, with no catchup like previously seen in every expansion since the first - sorry you have to keep doing what you were doing. The nerf is not something that makes you feel like you can kill something you've been banging your head against, because its one-time and comes at the same time as "everyone else" (from the perspective of the stuck group) move on.Now all the groups moving on, some would definately have benefited from staying in T14, but that doesn't matter, this is a problem not so much about facts as it is about experiences. We are old enough (players) to remember TBC - well most of us at least - and don't actually mind the new model for ourselves. Some of us are fortunate enough to be in a group with similarly motivated people, but a vast majority of groups have a significant number of players from the era where they never experiened or saw the TBC style - and everything they heard about it up untill now was probably mostly regarded the same was as "back in my day, I had to walk 5 miles to school, uphill - both ways, and in 6 feet of snow in the winter" - that while it may have been hard(er) or worse, it wasn't as bad as the stories made it seem.

I could clearly see in our raidgroup that the ones that were with us in TBC knew not to despair, but also that some of them were very impatient with others for not "focusing" enough - focusing here being low output of one kind or another - and teh frustration to moving on was mostly the younger people accepted, that had been accustomed to faster progress. This fed upon itself, naturally, and became a vicious circle because recruitment is also a pain in the butt.Our experience was definately not unique - one of the other raiding guilds on our server fell apart, not once, but twice (Sag moved on just in time from the second collapse iirc).

tl;dr: The problem isn't one of "just get better" its a problem of what people have been conditioned to being changed massively instead of incrementally, and mostly the ones that were there when it was like this last time being the ones that can accept it.

What super tight enrages and gear checks? Garalon week 1 before they changed his Berserk by a minute?

Then along comes T15, with no catchup like previously seen in every expansion since the first - sorry you have to keep doing what you were doing.

Tier 15 has far more catchup than any expansion to date. Between 496 items through Valor points, gold, 502's in LFR, and 522 in VP, you can get far far more equipped for T15 than you could in any previous expansion's catchup.

The problem isn't one of "just get better" its a problem of what people have been conditioned to being changed massively instead of incrementally

I ask once again - can you please demonstrate how T15 is vastly out of sync with what can objectively be expected from imperfect players, and where the bar should be set on mechanics and how dangerous or forgiving they are, or dps requirements (from your point of view?)

Last edited by Darielle on Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

SUper tight enrages = Elegon (you'd bette rhave 6 people that can output enough dps in a short window to get the sparks down our you wipe) and Garalon, yes. I'm not talking unbeatable enrages, but super tight, when taking agroup of moderately skilled/moderately unskilled raiders - a group that in cata and wrath could expect to at least down the first heroic boss in an instance, if not more (excepting ruby sanctum).

And for T15 having more catchups, I'll refer you to Sag's excellent overview.

SUper tight enrages = Elegon (you'd bette rhave 6 people that can output enough dps in a short window to get the sparks down our you wipe)

But that isn't what you had. You had 8 people, because Tanks were incredibly capable of soloing an add all the way up to 4th wave (which is all you really needed even in week 1), not to mention healers had room to dps adds between waves as well if people were resetting appropriately. More, these adds on 10-man Normal were exactly where you WANTED to pop DPS cooldowns, and the requirement on sparks that high? On week 1/2, our Destro Lock was already almost capable of 1-shotting a spark with a Chaos Bolt, and that was when we didn't even have all 463's.

And for T15 having more catchups, I'll refer you to Sag's excellent overview.

The main difference in that kind of overview is the perception that if you drop everything, you can finish all your catchup criteria in 2 days by chainrunning new instances. That definitely doesn't exist, but if we're suggesting that the second week to reach a similar point is somehow a big deal, that makes zero sense when the end area vaults you FAR, FAR beyond what you would even need to "enter" T15 to begin with.

That's not even taking into account the fact that when T9 or T10 came out, they were gated so heavily that you pretty much HAD to do something except for the new raid. For T9, it was zone in, Lolshot Beasts, and then sit around wondering what else to do for the rest of the week. It took a month for even the 2nd wing of ICC to even open up on Normal. That is a huge factor in the perceived "time lapse".

Last edited by Darielle on Fri Mar 22, 2013 2:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Then along comes T15, with no catchup like previously seen in every expansion since the first - sorry you have to keep doing what you were doing.

Tier 15 has far more catchup than any expansion to date. Between 496 items through Valor points, gold, 502's in LFR, and 522 in VP, you can get far far more equipped for T15 than you could in any previous expansion's catchup.

There are two big differences: First, on week 1, there is much less available (main culprit being the Valor stuff staying on Valor and no new 5men)Second, there is going to be more and more available as weeks pass and T15LFR opens up, and Shado-pan Assault is completed. In fact, I'm enclined to believe that in a month's time, we'll have more catch-up options available than ever before.But the point is - like you metnionned, the catch up has been slower, ramping up in speed in the first few weeks.

Now, please, as a REMINDER, I don't judge wether it's good or bad (for now). I just want to understand and restate why the perception exists, so that we have a better base than:

"Hurr, nerf T15!""Durr, get better noob!"

Paraphrased, but you get where that kind of "You!" - "No you!" argument leads.

EDIT:

The main difference in that kind of overview is the perception that if you drop everything, you can finish all your catchup criteria in 2 days by chainrunning new instances. That definitely doesn't exist, but if we're suggesting that the second week to reach a similar point is somehow a big deal, that makes zero sense when the end area vaults you FAR, FAR beyond what you would even need to "enter" T15 to begin with.

That's the kind of point I was trying to make: is a slower catch-up a good or bad thing?

That's not even taking into account the fact that when T9 or T10 came out, they were gated so heavily that you pretty much HAD to do something except for the new raid. For T9, it was zone in, Lolshot Beasts, and then sit around wondering what else to do for the rest of the week. It took a month for even the 2nd wing of ICC to even open up on Normal. That is a huge factor in the perceived "time lapse".

Irrelevant, and actually not a factor. The entire question is around how easy/hard it is for the "catching up" players to actually catch up. Trust me, those players would not have the luxury of bumping on that gating anyhow.

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

There are two big differences: First, on week 1, there is much less available (main culprit being the Valor stuff staying on Valor and no new 5men)Second, there is going to be more and more available as weeks pass and T15LFR opens up, and Shado-pan Assault is completed. In fact, I'm enclined to believe that in a month's time, we'll have more catch-up options available than ever before.But the point is - like you metnionned, the catch up has been slower, ramping up in speed in the first few weeks.

On the surface, that's true. However, differences involve:- T14 had an upgrade vendor that already allowed you to get gear 8 into the 504's.- T15 did not reset Valor points, which means unlike in previous tiers, you COULD get your Valor purchases out the gate. In a previous tier, even getting the 1250 VP item would not have been an option till Week 2 (again).- The gating on content in T9 and T10 meant that the raid basically had an hour or so of content going into the patch, and that didn't change until almost a month after the patch went in.- As a result, you either did old content anyway or plain didn't raid.- This also had an effect on Tier pieces. I remember getting Trophies in week 1 and then having to wait 2 weeks to be able to buy the piece I wanted.- What the 5-man gave you was gear from the previous level anyway, while the gear that you now obtain as a catchup is better off than the gear from the 5-mans. If you were actually raiding Ulduar when ToC came out, the 2 or so pieces that might have actually been upgrades in the 5-mans are more than made up by the fact that you have a 522 neck gifted and a shot at 502's (and a freebie boss in Jin'rokh).- And that's the big thing. If you actually raided the old instance at the time the way people have been raiding T14 even though only clearing some of it, you already had all the old catchup items anyway. In T12, the 359's were nigh irrelevant because anyone who actually raided T11 HAD all the 359's anyway.

I can maybe see why there might be a perception that T15 is slower to catch up, but the reality? Not so much.

That's the kind of point I was trying to make: is a slower catch-up a good or bad thing?

A week? It's pretty much as insignificant as you could get.

Irrelevant, and actually not a factor. The entire question is around how easy/hard it is for the "catching up" players to actually catch up. Trust me, those players would not have the luxury of bumping on that gating anyhow.

It's definitely a factor. It meant that you did old content even if you didn't want to back in the day, pretty much using the old content as a catchup mechanism out of sheer boredom anyway.TRUST ME, even "those players" got Beasts and the 1st wing of ICC down with pretty much no effort. Especially on 10-man, but even more so on 25-man. I know that from very personal experience.

To give you an idea, we had a Priest at the time who was Shadow and couldn't keep Misery up (Misery was a debuff that was applied every time you applied a dot and lasted 15 or so seconds). AKA out of 3 dots, he had a 65% uptime on any one dot at a time. The reason? He only had one action bar of 10 buttons active on his UI, so his dots were on different action bars and he wasn't able to page up and down fast enough to even keep ONE dot up all the time. That was the calibre of players >I< had, and we still oneshot Beasts (with half the raid dying on NOT ONE BUT TWO WORMS).

The REALLY scary thing looking back is that we actually killed Illidan when he was relevant. Although even that has a story, where one of our tanks emoraged because it took until Illidan for us to know that he didn't know what uncrittable was.

Last edited by Darielle on Fri Mar 22, 2013 2:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

There are two big differences: First, on week 1, there is much less available (main culprit being the Valor stuff staying on Valor and no new 5men)Second, there is going to be more and more available as weeks pass and T15LFR opens up, and Shado-pan Assault is completed. In fact, I'm enclined to believe that in a month's time, we'll have more catch-up options available than ever before.But the point is - like you metnionned, the catch up has been slower, ramping up in speed in the first few weeks.

On the surface, that's true. However, differences involve:

Here we go...

- T14 had an upgrade vendor that already allowed you to get gear 8 into the 504's.

IF you had drops from HoF. There are two bosses before Garalon. At best, you had three pieces from that raid. Further, that would mean abandonning a nice Valor/rep piece.

- T15 did not reset Valor points, which means unlike in previous tiers, you COULD get your Valor purchases out the gate. In a previous tier, even getting the 1250 VP item would not have been an option till Week 2 (again).

Do note that Valor back then gave current-tier rewards, while now, the only faction that actually grants current-tier material is mostly gated.

- The gating on content in T9 and T10 meant that the raid basically had an hour or so of content going into the patch, and that didn't change until almost a month after the patch went in.- As a result, you either did old content anyway or plain didn't raid.- This also had an effect on Tier pieces. I remember getting Trophies in week 1 and then having to wait 2 weeks to be able to buy the piece I wanted.

Irrelevant for those playing catch-up, unless I'm missing something, and then, I'd need a clarification, please.

- What the 5-man gave you was gear from the previous level anyway, while the gear that you now obtain as a catchup is better off than the gear from the 5-mans. If you were actually cleaning Ulduar when ToC came out, the 2 or so pieces that might have actually been upgrades in the 5-mans are more than made up by the fact that you have a 522 neck gifted and a shot at 502's (and a freebie boss in Jin'rokh).

FIFY and emphasis mine. Always try to keep in mind we're talking about people playing catch up. That means:People working on the TItan Keepers in Ulduar, or on the Twins/Anub' in ToC.

- And that's the big thing. If you actually raided the old instance at the time the way people have been raiding T14 even though only clearing some of it, you already had all the old catchup items anyway. In T12, the 359's were nigh irrelevant because anyone who actually raided T11 HAD all the 359's anyway.

MEEP! Wrong premise - we're talking about people that were at 8/11 T11 or 5 or 6/7 T12. I was at 8/11 T11 for example, and still needed a couple pieces in ZG.

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

LFR gear in the current system replaces the Justice and 5-man gear that was there in earlier tiers. It's a little more gated, but it's there, filling the same lower-ilevel bracket. In fact, by being above the ilevel of T14, ToT LFR gear is better than what you got from 5-mans and Justice in WotLK.

Last edited by KysenMurrin on Fri Mar 22, 2013 2:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

IF you had drops from HoF. There are two bosses before Garalon. At best, you had three pieces from that raid. Further, that would mean abandonning a nice Valor/rep piece.

It's not only if you had drops from HoF. 489's that you got from MSV also became 497's. That's effective enough to push you fairly far into the 490's if you did raid in T14.

Do note that Valor back then gave current-tier rewards, while now, the only faction that actually grants current-tier material is mostly gated.

But Valor is ALREADY gated. Having 245's in T9 didn't make a damn difference out the gate because you had to wait till week 3 to buy that 245 Chest to begin with. SSO rep doesn't functionally slow you down in any effective way; at worst, it limits you from buying the Chest early on. Which is a big whoop because the big item (the trinket) is available right at Friendly.

FIFY and emphasis mine. Always try to keep in mind we're talking about people playing catch up. That means:People working on the TItan Keepers in Ulduar, or on the Twins/Anub' in ToC.

Not really. We're talking Wrath here. Even for not very good players (like those I played with), most of ToC on 25N was a oneshot, and Ulduar wasn't exactly hard either. Working on Yogg, perhaps. There were plenty who were able to activate and do FL-4 and Heartbreaker and even Steelbreaker last even if they weren't "the elite" or whatever.

MEEP! Wrong premise - we're talking about people that were at 8/11 T11 or 5 or 6/7 T12. I was at 8/11 T11 for example, and still needed a couple pieces in ZG.

That's exactly what I said. A couple of pieces from the new 5-man, and if you were capping Valor from the non-raiding sources that you could anyway, you would have had all the 359's going into T12 so having the T12 come from Justice wasn't really meaningful. It WAS meaningful to those who didn't even play in T11, but that's not the same audience we're talking about here. Even someone who didn't clear T14 had the ability to buy the 5 or so Valor item pieces even if they were too bored by dailies to unlock the Revered items (Blizzard made that change really early in week 1/2 of the expansion)

Last edited by Darielle on Fri Mar 22, 2013 2:43 am, edited 2 times in total.

I'm with Darielle here. I wouldn't say the catchup is slower now, it's just different. Just consider you can go do Troves of the Thunder king and get ~15 coins for 5 minutes of work, then PUG MSV/HoF/ToES a bit and use a coin on every single boss (which now has a pretty high chance of yielding loot). And then you have LFR on top of that.

Honestly was it more fun mindlessly spamming heroics 50 million times?

Throne of Thunder normal isn't tuned assuming you are a Heroic raiding guild. If your raid is still progressing through Tier 14 (say, at Garalon) it's very likely you'll be able to only kill Jin'rokh and then face a very difficult battle trying to slay Horridon or Council of Elders, though.

In that case (and for the guilds still progressing through T14) it probably makes more sense to go back clear the rest of Tier 14 (which is now more doable thanks to the 10% reduction in damage and health of bosses as well as the new VP gear you can get with 5.2 Patch).

Guilds that have completed Tier 14 Normal already should be able to progress through Throne of Thunder. Of course, you might not clear all of it in a couple weeks, but it's something definitely doable without getting Heroic gear from Tier 14 (gear from Normal Tier 15 is higher item level).

On the other hand, it's also important to keep in mind that Jin'rokh is a rather easy boss. He's not necessarily a representation of the rest of the raid's difficulty. Which is something many of you have probably noticed while progressing on Horridon or Council of Elders. And that might set a wrong expectation as to how quickly you can/should progress in Throne of Thunder. It's very possible to kill Jin'rokh without much difficulty and then suddenly feel like Horridon is a brick wall, don't despair!

There are many encounters in Throne of Thunder that your raid will have to learn. And it's normal to feel things may be overtuned at the beginning of a new raiding tier while everyone is trying to better understand what each boss does and how to execute the fight properly.

Not everything comes down to how much gear your raid has. In fact, you might overgear, say, Horridon, and yet be unable to progress past him due to an inefficient strategy.

In any case, the developers are keeping an eye out on how things are going, and they will be making adjustments as needed. Ideally, no one should find him/herself in a situation where it looks like it's impossible to win without getting more gear and unable to actually get more gear.

This is getting silly. I'm trying to explain that the downgrading of Valor pieces to Justice and inclusion of last-tier level 5man was a very strong catch-up system for players that could not clear previous tier content, and here I am stuck nitpicking every last little nook.

In fact, I'd argue that it was an insanely fast catch-up requiring a couple of hours a day hacking at those new instances, even without any kind of planning or effort in the previous tier. Got drops, got justice for gear, got 3-4 pieces of last tier level on day 1.

Have you *seen* the amount of loops we're being discussing to get to the same point this time around? Valor on the neck, trash runs+Jin'rokh+MORE Valor for one of wrists/ring/trinket (the tank sucks, btw). That's -IT- for the first -WEEK-

Actually, I'd say the SPA rep is more of an "anti-catch-up", as we 2/12+ raiders have gotten more use out of it to upgrade important pieces earlier.

I'm with Darielle here. I wouldn't say the catchup is slower now, it's just different. Just consider you can go do Troves of the Thunder king and get ~15 coins for 5 minutes of work, then PUG MSV/HoF/ToES a bit and use a coin on every single boss (which now has a pretty high chance of yielding loot). And then you have LFR on top of that.

Honestly was it more fun mindlessly spamming heroics 50 million times?

Who has been discussing fun? Not me. Let's restate *once more* the change in *ease*

T13: 9*7 = 63 mindlesszerg bosses every week + unlimited justice for ugrades. You just got a full 378 set on day 1-2 and just let the valor slowly come in. 7 chances to get "your" piece + the justice option as fallback.T15: 16 mindlesszeg bosses + 16 easy bosses every week. Even with Elder coins you're just breaking even. So, pray your RNG gods to give you your missing piece of not even necessarily last-tier level. Else? Well, though luck!

And then we get to the kicker: you're farming old stuff. You've seen the inside of T14 for 6 months now. You want to see new stuff. The new raid would be cool, but at least *NEW*

At least the good thing is I'm starting to realize that more than the 5-man, it was the Valor -> Justice downgrade that was the strongest catch-up.

EDIT: Re: Blizz's statement - I'm in agreement with them actually, no matter how hard I try to understand the complains. It's all about patience - the catch-up WILL happen, it will just take a month or so instead of a couple of days. And in the meanwhile, practice will help a lot, and might even accelerate the catch-up.

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

This is getting silly. I'm trying to explain that the downgrading of Valor pieces to Justice and inclusion of last-tier level 5man was a very strong catch-up system for players that could not clear previous tier content, and here I am stuck nitpicking every last little nook.

That's the thing though. It WASn'T strong for people who couldn't clear previous content; because they could get those anyway. Valor didn't really have anything to do with raids.It WAS strong for people who flat out were not even there the previous tier. And that was why they changed it.

That's not just a nitpick; it is a pretty big misrepresentation to exaggerate the past.

This is getting silly. I'm trying to explain that the downgrading of Valor pieces to Justice and inclusion of last-tier level 5man was a very strong catch-up system for players that could not clear previous tier content, and here I am stuck nitpicking every last little nook.

That's the thing though. It WASn'T strong for people who couldn't clear previous content; because they could get those anyway. Valor didn't really have anything to do with raids.It WAS strong for people who flat out were not even there the previous tier. And that was why they changed it.

That's not just a nitpick; it is a pretty big misrepresentation to exaggerate the past.

Let's go ad absurdo then: what then is the problem with those dear people on this very forum complaiing about Horridon despite the fact they had such powerful catch-up this time around?

L2P?

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

what then is the problem with those dear people on this very forum complaiing about Horridon despite the fact they had such powerful catch-up this time around?

L2P?

Chances are - they're prioritising the wrong things to kill, trying to aoe things down while ignoring mechanics, or missing a key mechanic (like interrupts on Venom Bolt Volley, or trying to burn big adds in wave 3 and letting the disease get out of control). Or they have players in the raid doing a mix of any of those (it's hard enough for everyone sometimes to get people to actually burn the correct things instead of METERS).

Sagara wrote:Let's go ad absurdo then: what then is the problem with those dear people on this very forum complaiing about Horridon despite the fact they had such powerful catch-up this time around?

L2P?

That's exactly their problem, although the same argument can be literally made to any guild that's not world first, "you could play better".

That doesn't mean its a solution to those not progressing through MoP raid tiers.

Blizzard have now stated exactly what they expect from normal mode raiders "Go get those VP items (some items from Raid Finder might help as well, absolutely) and keep refining your strategies. The boss kills will come".. etc.

But my original point still stands, there's former Cata raiding guilds that have found MoP raiding too difficult and are now at a loose end. The solution is apparently LFR, except since that requires almost no co-ordination it doesn't fill the role previous easier/nerfed whilst current raiding tiers filled for them.

Re-visiting T14 normal modes is a reasonable course for those guilds to take, but based on a very small sample of guilds on my server those avenues for progress aren't being utilized because T14 no longer holds an interest for them after months of elegon/garalon wipes and T14 LFR.

Winkle wrote:That's exactly their problem, although the same argument can be literally made to any guild that's not world first, "you could play better".

That doesn't mean its a solution to those not progressing through MoP raid tiers.

Blizzard have now stated exactly what they expect from normal mode raiders "Go get those VP items (some items from Raid Finder might help as well, absolutely) and keep refining your strategies. The boss kills will come".. etc.

But my original point still stands, there's former Cata raiding guilds that have found MoP raiding too difficult and are now at a loose end. The solution is apparently LFR, except since that requires almost no co-ordination it doesn't fill the role previous easier/nerfed whilst current raiding tiers filled for them.

Re-visiting T14 normal modes is a reasonable course for those guilds to take, but based on a very small sample of guilds on my server those avenues for progress aren't being utilized because T14 no longer holds an interest for them after months of elegon/garalon wipes and T14 LFR.

THANK YOU.

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

Newsom wrote:But isn't a good thing that Normal modes are something the more "casual" guilds actually have to progress through now instead of being just another loot piñata?

I like the new model better, to a point, actually. The biggest downside it has had so far was the daily grind that left like a step down from 5.1, and the utter uselessness of Justice (yayheirlooms!)LFR will keep opening up and everyone will have access to the higher SDA rewards as well.

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

But my original point still stands, there's former Cata raiding guilds that have found MoP raiding too difficult and are now at a loose end. The solution is apparently LFR, except since that requires almost no co-ordination it doesn't fill the role previous easier/nerfed whilst current raiding tiers filled for them.

So what is the answer?

Because nerfing MoP raiding also has the exact same effect - it removes a large degree of coordination required. That's essentially what you had in Firelands and Dragon Soul, and nerfed T11 (Al'Akir not being able to stack Acid Rain anymore was heeelarious) after all - would removing the coordination requirements on, say, Elegon* really make it an improvement in content, or is it just that LFR has more than the people in your guild, so it naturally doesn't feel as fun as doing something with your guildies exclusively?

*That's one big thing most people miss. The "gearcheck" of Elegon and Garalon is actually for the most part a mechanics check. HOW you handle add waves, or efficient leg damage, determines where you stand. It's not uncommon to see people complain about how they're doing Garalon's mechanics right and not succeeding at the Berserk, but the reason they're not succeeding at the Berserk is that they're failing the leg mechanic by not splitting properly.

Speaking of the Justice point thing, Primordial Saronite still goes for 266 per. I was half interested in soloing my way to a second Lolmourne on an alt (for the rewards) until I saw that.

That's exactly their problem, although the same argument can be literally made to any guild that's not world first, "you could play better".That doesn't mean its a solution to those not progressing through MoP raid tiers.

Why? Why should it be discounted a solution that after 20 pulls, even one in five casuals are good enough to realise that maybe assigning someone to interrupt Venom Bolt Volley, or "kill the little guys first" could be a good thing (and getting this through the raid)? I think "casuals" are a bit smarter than that overall.

The other side of the coin is Icy Veins syndrome, where people literally spit out strats from there, which aren't always accurate, let alone appropriate, and then struggle as a result. There was a LOT of that happening on Council this tier. Hell, I'm pretty sure people still go to do Garalon with 2 tanks just because Icy Veins says to, or have people spending the entire fight running into legs because Icy Veins said that people should run into Legs for the buff and losing dps. I'm 100% sure there are raids that struggle on Primordius because some chap goes and takes 3 bad debuffs and they sit there doing piss all dps because Icy Veins says to never dispel peoeple.